[Uatu]

Did they try to sell it in Japan?

Japan is rather insular (new ideas are not adopted easily) and the media controls a lot, so that may also have been related to why the software didn't sell well.

Also, what was the Nintendo port like? The same game with different graphics, or a completely different game?

There was a game called "Eye of the Beholder" for the Gameboy Advance (fairly recently) - it had little to do with the original SSI semi-action RPG game series, but seemed a lot like the old Gold Box games.

I think that Japan's first taste of RPGs was the Wizardry game series - still popular today. You might notice that, in essence, Dragon Quest (i.e. Dragon Warrior) games are basically like Wizardry, but with 2D overhead maps instead of 3D first-view dungeons. The Wizardry-like combat system has pervaded Japan's CRPGs since, while a completely separate genre of "simulation RPG" has been made for a somewhat more wargame-like RPGs, but the two have remained very separate.

Unfortunately, the truth is, of course, that Wizardry was Wizardry because that was as far as programming could take CRPGs at the time - the "goal" was clearly an actualization of paper/pencil/dice RPGs. Japan never really knew the actual goal, so they just started with Wizardry (and to a lesser extent, Ultima) and "powered-up," so to speak. Powering-up, of course, meant upping graphics and music, but also adding a very anime-ish element as well, and diverging from the original RPG idea.